Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead
The basics
Title: Spirit Bound
Author: Richelle Mead
Series: Vampire Academy #5
- Vampire Academy (August, 2007)
- Frostbite (April, 2008)
- Shadow Kiss (November, 2008)
- Blood Promise (August, 2009)
- Spirit Bound (May, 2010)
- Last Sacrifice (December, 2010)
Add it: Goodreads
Goodreads Summary:
Dimitri gave Rose the ultimate choice. But she chose wrong...
After a long and heartbreaking journey to Dimitri's birthplace in Siberia, Rose Hathaway has finally returned to St. Vladimir's-and to her best friend, Lissa. It is nearly graduation, and the girls can't wait for their real lives beyond the Academy's iron gates to begin. But Rose's heart still aches for Dimitri, and she knows he's out there, somewhere.
She failed to kill him when she had the chance. And now her worst fears are about to come true. Dimitri has tasted her blood, and now he is hunting her. And this time he won't rest until Rose joins him... forever.
Read a full summary of Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead below. If you can’t remember what happened in Spirit Bound and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.
In short
After graduation, Rose and Lissa go to live at the Royal Court, but almost immediately leave this to go on a mission to get Viktor Dashkov out of jail to find his brother. They need his brother to find out how to bring Strigoi back. On this trip, they learn how to do it but also accidentally lose Viktor and Robert when they are attacked by Dimitri. Later, Dimitri kidnaps Lissa and Christian, and Rose stages a rescue mission. But then Lissa manages to bring Dimitri back from being a Strigoi, and he gets very whiny about it. Kidding. Sort of. Anyway, then Dimitri doesn’t want anything to do with Rose anymore and it’s all very sad, until he decides to fight for her when she’s the main suspect when Queen Tatiana is found murdered. Because that wasn’t enough drama, Rose gets send to jail for a while and she learns that Lissa has another living relative, which means she could get the right to vote in the Council.
What happened in Spirit Bound?
- So we left off at Dimitri sending Rose a letter that said that he was still alive. That’s actually what he does in Spirit Bound as well: he keeps sending her letters that are stuck between being love and hate letters. He mostly just wants her dead. It’s very kind.
- Meanwhile, Rose is dating Adrian, as she promised when she left for Russia.
- It’s time for Rose’s final exam at St. Vladimir’s and she has to do an awesome job if she wants to be allowed to be Lissa’s guardian. She, obviously, does an awesome job, even when she got an even harder exam than her classmates.
- Rose and Lissa (and everyone else, obviously) graduate from St. Vladimir’s and go off to live at the Royal Palace. (Lissa promised this to the Queen, because this would allow her to go to the college of her dreams.)
- However, Rose is mostly still thinking about ways to bring Dimitri back to life. For this, she needs Viktor Dashkov’s brother Robert Duru, and for that, she needs Viktor Dashkov. How to get Viktor Dashkov? Well, you break him out of jail, obviously.
- Rose, Eddie and Lissa go off to the extremely high security prison he is chilling in, by pretending to be human feeders. They actually pull it off, thanks to Lissa’s compulsion.
- Viktor agrees to help them, because he would never ever get out of jail otherwise. They travel to Las Vegas, because that’s where Robert is – you know, the spirit user who claims to have returned a Strigoi from the dead.
- Adrian, who has been tracking Rose’s credit cards, shows up in Vegas and joins the party. He is very jealous because Rose is only thinking about Dimitri, but he still stays.
- Robert tells them how to kill a Strigoi: a Spirit user has to charm a stake with Spirit and then kill the Strigoi.
- Then they get attacked by Dimitri and co. (other Strigoi) and both Viktor and Robert manage to escape. Rose fights Dimitri, and eventually, they are able to escape and return to the Royal Court, where Rose and Eddie are punished.
- Lissa visits the university she’s going to attend, and she and Christian train how to stake a Strigoi with the help of Lissa’s guardians. But when they are outside one night, they get attacked by Strigoi and kidnapped by Dimitri because he wants Rose – still.
- Because of the bond, Rose is able to help the other guardians at the Court to get to Lissa. While guardians and Strigoi are busy fighting, Rose and Dimitri fight as well. But then Lissa, after her training with Christian, manages to get close enough to actually stake Dimitri.
- Dimitri is turned back into a Dhampir, and the first thing he does is cry in Lissa’s arms. (When he obviously should have been making out with Rose. Sigh.)
- Dimitri keeps his drama queen act going by refusing to talk to Rose, even when he is imprisoned at Court (nobody trusts him, since they don’t know that Strigoi can be turned back into Moroi/Dhampirs). He is acting like Edward Cullen, to be honest.
- Rose is very sad and so she almost has sex with Adrian. Instead she lets him drink her blood, trying to move on from Dimitri.
- Rose and Dimitri are finally able to have a sort of normal conversation when Rose is surrounded by guardians. Dimitri becomes a bit of the badass warrior he used to be and fights all the guardians to protect Rose.
How did it end?
The guardians announce that Queen Tatiana has been murdered with Rose’s stake. WHAT. Rose is now the major suspect in a murder case. What even. There is a hearing in which Abe insists on being Rose’s lawyer, which gets her in jail anyway. She now has to wait for an official trial, which might as well be a death sentence. On her way to jail, Rose receives a note from Ambrose (the Queen’s secret lover) saying that Lissa needs to have her voice heard in the Council and that she is not the last Dragomir.
anything else
Dhampir: Half human, half vampire, Dhampirs usually train to protect Moroi from Strigoi. Also, Dhampirs can’t survive without Moroi, needing them for generation and everything.
Moroi: Vampires who are alive. Which means they can die and everything. They don’t die immediately in sunlight, but it’s no good for them either, which is why they live at night. Moroi do need blood, but they don’t kill for it. Instead, they have feeders, humans who are willing to feed them. Oh, and a Moroi’s bite is described as something like an orgasm, basically. Oh well. (Also, Moroi are ruled by a queen and have seven royal families.)
Strigoi: Vampires who are dead. Also known as EVIL. Moroi become Strigoi when they a) kill someone on purpose, or b) are fed Strigoi blood. (Correct me if I’m mistaken, but I think that was the second thing.) Strigoi can’t go out in the sunlight, and also, they don’t have magic. They ARE very strong, which is a problem sometimes.
Blood-whore: Dhampir women who, instead of becoming guardians, decide to live in a group and raise their children. The accusing term ‘blood-whore’ is used because some of these women are known to let Moroi bite them while having sex. Which is basically a no-go in Moroi land.
Alchemist: Humans working together with Moroi and Dhampirs to keep vampire a secret. Alchemists have a golden tattoo on their face that prevents them from ever talking to humans about vampires. Alchemists are very religious and very scared of vampires.
This is a full plot summary of what happened in Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!
